Saturday, October 2, 2010

The U.S. Postal Service could cut its workforce by one-third and its supervisory ranks even more, a leading Republican Congressman indicated this week.

"The Post Office has 200,000 people who should be retiring," Rep. Darrell Issa said in a speech Wednesday to The Heritage Foundation. USPS had 568,301 employees at the end of August. "When I say retiring I mean we don’t need them. But let’s bear in mind it’s just not the guy at the post office; it’s the thousands of people who are doing maintenance at post offices that we don’t need to have so many of."

"And more importantly there’s a 1 to 7 ratio," the California Republican said. "For every person that delivers your mail, or packs your mail, or touches your mail -- for every 7 of them -- there’s one of them that is just, quote, a 'supervisor'. That’s a ratio that’s so unacceptable in the private sector."

As ranking Republican on the House Oversight & Government Reform Committee, the California Republican would probably chair the key Congressional panel overseeing the USPS if the GOP wins a majority in the November elections. His comments about the Postal Service start just after the 29-minute mark in this video of the speech.

"I’m going to take on postal reform if I’m lucky enough to be the chairman next year," Issa said.

Efforts to shrink the Postal Service's workforce through attrition and early-retirement incentives "simply have not resulted in the kind of change and transformation USPS needs to cover its costs," Issa wrote recently in an editorial for The Washington Times. He would like the USPS to be able to lay off unionized employees if they could be retrained for and fill other jobs in the federal government.

70 comments:

GOP has always raided public coffers. GOP's Chaney giving Halliburton/KBR/Blackwater uncompetitive bids for Iraq work just 1 recent example. That they would be salivating at the USPS's money certainly is no surprise. Nothing more Socialist than USPS delivering mail below cost (remember FEDS are tax exempt). The USA's delivery market is about combined $1 Trillion. Private companies aren't coming in to do the job faster/cheaper. The are coming in to strip the shelfs bare. Again nothing new.

In fairness, the "1 of 7" that Representative Issa refers to also includes low-level Postmasters at thousands of small post offices in small communities throughout the nation. Many of these Postmasters are the only employee in their office, or have just a few clerks or rural carriers. Their salary is less than that of a city letter carrier. Incidentally, many of these same small offices are ones that Congress prevents USPS from closing!

He's going to take on postal destruction, not reform. Like all people at high levels of abstraction in life he doesn't have a clue how many people it takes to find a wire the size of a human hair in a fifteen ton DIOSS machine with ten computers and numerous networks attached to it. He doesn't inderstand that it requires two months at the Norman Oklahoma campus of the USPS to learn the BASICS of a new FSS machine one third the size of a football field. Then it takes years to gain the experience to fix it reliably and quickly. Fewer than 3000 E.T.s are responsible for the day to day continuation of the entire Postal Service and so 1 trillion in GDP and 8 million american jobs dependant on the USPS. You save jobs by mechanizing the movement of mail, but you don't save work. The work is transferred to complex machines that need more and more highly trained and experienced techs (maintenance) to maintain machines 24/7. Cut and burn maintenance and you gut the USPS. The machinery becomes expensive junk. But do what you want to. Apparently we need another Glass-Steagall-overturn moment in this country. Just be fair and allow us to strike on our own behalf. That's fair. Americans know "fair." I guarantee that our present pay and benefits (and they are a national bargain) will be looked on nostalgically.

Don't forget all the supervisor jobs that are/were created just to move the incompetent into. Having retired from the USPS I know for a fact that when there is a problem with a supervisor they just move him/her to another and sometimes higher paying position just to make the problem seem to go away. That is why there are supervisors for supervisors, etc., etc.. The lame and lazy incompetent making the command decisions that are driving the USPS in the ground.

Issa certainly likes to "run off at the mouth"...he needs to really research, investigate, PHYSICALLY...and at many points across the nation, different circumstances. Would be extremely time consuming but all these rich, holier than thou politicians need to actually DO something and stop "EYEBALLING" numbers, stats and forming an uniformed opinion...

i've gotta say some of what this guy says is true. we have been preaching about too many supervisors for years. i see supervisors standing around talking about sports, the military, and whatever else. they talk endlessly all day and tell you to shut up and go to work. cut a few of them and all the work the other now gone supervisor will go to remaining supervisor and then they won't have time to stand around talking about sports scores. alot of units have supervisors who don't know what's going on and talk out of both sides of their mouths. i don't dislike supervisors if they are decent people and know how to manage and there are a quite a few. it's just like a rotten apple just one makes the whole barrel bad.

I would like to thank you for looking at the BIG picture. While we all know supervision any where is a must. But as you have addressed supervision in the USPS is out of control. plaes take time and visit Postal facilities around the country and talk to the craft employees, thankyou

David is right, the equipment won't fix itself. The more you rely on automated sorting the more you will need maintenance people like him and me. And it's not just the wires in the machine, how about the 100's of belts, 1000's of bearings, and tons of paper dust. And if you think you can contract it out, on the outside qualified people make more than we do in the larger cities, and that is where all the equipment is migrating to.

I've got an idea for Issa. Just have the PO stop trucking mail on the 7th day of the week. We only deliver on 6, and all the people and trucking costs needed for the 7th day will amount to several billion a year....

Supervisors, managers and more supervisors. We have way to many. A 204B that is way more qualified than the actual supervisor and the manager put together. A manager that comes and leaves when she wants. A dopey supervisor that is way under qualified. Because he doesn't know anything, he spends his day driving around making sure your wheels are curbed. The things that he spends his time on are just to fill the day. Because he knows and we know he should not be there. One person should run the office alone. Because if 25 letter carriers must pivot every working day for downtime to save money, then why is it alright to waste money on extra useless bodies. Why does a letter carriers job have documented downtime, but management is allowed to roam freely without making any sacrifices. Oh I'm sorry they spend their time talking on their cellphones on the workroom floor, having extended lunches, coming in late when they want, leaving early when they want and making sure they tell you WHAT YOU DOING WRONG. Don't just change routes, change managements bad habits

This "Republican" ignores the facts. This $75 billion sheep skin thing is false. According to the Office of Inspector General's study, the Post Office has overpaid retirement benefits by $75 billion. THIS IS NO BAILOUT! This is theft by the Federal Government. I agree that the p.o. needs to get rid of supervisors. The employees, no. They need to get rid of the temporary employees that are treated like garbage. No benefits and fired if call in sick. They don't even know how to do the job properly. How about laying off Rep. Darrell Issa. We could retrain him to do another job. You people don't even read the bills you pass!!! I hope that you do not get re elected nor your Republican friends. All you want to do is give tax breaks to the oil companies. Shut up and get your facts straight before you shoot your big mouth off.

Rep. Darrell Issa should get his facts straight. The "$75 billion bailout" is nothing more than what the Federal Government owes the Post Office for their paying the gov'ts share of retirement payments. This is according to an Office of Inspector General study.So how about giving back the money you thieves? Maybe we could retrain Rep. Darrell Issa as a priest? Then he could learn how to tell the truth. True, the p.o. needs to get rid of more supervisors. As to the supervisor that oversees 35, he is an exception. I have never seen so many titles for Vice Presidents as in the p.o. I am sure alot of them are office people.

Issa is a self serving asshole. If he's so good in the private sector, then go back. He certainly doesn't understand what "government services" require. The US Postal Service is the most trusted federal agency in the world, but it was his poorly drafted and enacted PAEA legislation in 2006 which robbed $83 billion of postal funds.

And I an going to ensure my vote keeps him from taking that chairmanship...how about you?

i think in order to save money and make the post office better, they need to continue to encourage retirement, stop letting management make decisions without the input of the worker since we (the workers) are the most familiar with how the units operate, when and what mail comes in, and when it needs to go out, and make sure everyone is doing the best job they can. i know from experience that some employees dont care about their job. they spend their time talking more than they work, or going to the bathroom way too often. they need to get more strict on those types of employees because it directly affects production. if the test was based on the physical, the post office would have more productive workers. all the things the post office is doing now to save money, is what they should have been doing from the gate. i still dont understand why the the letters have a machine that puts it in walking sequence and the flats do not....? that should have been done at the same time as the letter machines were made. i see my center fixing up things in the building that aren't even broken, when they need to be investing that money towards something more important. its frustrating that i cant do anything as a worker to get my voice heard. the "voe" survey dont cover how we think we can make the post office better, but even then, there might not be a difference. theres so many things that i feel would make a significant difference and help save time but noone listens.

I think this country has too many Congressman. Goverment keeps getting bigger and this guy is worried about the size of the Postal Service. how about giving them their money back so they can stay in business...

Incredible. California is compeltely bankrupt, and has MILLIONS of people out of work, and this idiot wants more people thrown out of their jobs. That is the Republicans for you, take care of the very wealthy, those that need the help the very least, and screw the poor and middle class, those that need the help the most, that do the work, and pay all the taxes anyway. If you are in the PO and vote Republican, you are out of your mind. Where is this guys mind, these people have familes, children to take of!

Darrell, it's not like were stealing cars !! Anonymous has about all the facts down. We could do with about one half to two thirds of the Postmasters which I think is the most obsolete position. We could run the USPS with district managers and area supervisors and save 1 to 2 billion a year. As for the 500 executives, we'll train you for another job !!

Issa is either a complete imbecile, a liar, or both. He is constantly spouting untruths about USPS and its employees. When USPS wants to use its massive surpluses in pension funding to pay off the retiree health benefit prefunding, Issa calls it a "taxpayer bailout." Whether he is an imbecile or a liar, one thing is for sure - he isdangerous. He has the potential to do even more damage to USPS than Congress has managed to do so far.

28 year carrier here. Issa is on the mark. The USPS has 7 layers of overpaid 100k-300K ayear management. Most got there with minimal education thru EEO or affirmative action. Much like Jerry Lane, from the assault a employee notiriety. Bus;101 ...Cut overhead. What is overhead Management,non-productive, uneducated, wannabe CEOs who drive around in government cars, with government credit cards, with high end offices, 10 yes men with just as meaningless jobs.We all see them everyday. They are called "Area People", District Mangers, assistants, secretaries of same (we know how they got there).Ever vist a District Office?Cake parties all day.

I've seen both sides of the house. Management is way to top heavy. People that watch the process and say we need to change it. NOT the way the workers would do it. We are short handed in craft and they want us to do it all by some time frame. Three things need to happen that would save Millions if no Billions. 1. Reduce managers, supervisors. eliminate 204B's all together.2. Eliminate Pay for performance they don't do the work we do.3. Make the remaining SDO's, MDO's, Plant Managers, and District Mangers pay a percentage of the grievance. The Post office allocates Billions to the grievance awards, and all of the mentioned Sups. and Mang. blatantly violate the contracts because they don't have to pay, the PO does and who knows how much is wasted paying Labor fines for said violations.

How about this..how many Congressmen and women do we need? They surely aren't representing their constituents by not addressing these problems with the USPS. Why do they get to vote on their own salaries? They are the biggest wasters of government funds but then this idiot wants to lie and not have his facts straight. Typical so called representative of the "people". I hope he gets voted out and then he will see what its like to be out of a job. I think we have at least a hundred members of Congress whom WE don't need!

The A.P.W.U. should be sweating the no layoff clauses are going away !!! Bottom line is this ; every employee is way overpaid. the post office couldn't give psychologiacal exams at hiring , so afer 90 days these morons were " all set " in whatever job they took. Now if you think making $ 25,00 per hour is not enough money for cleaning toilets or pushing a button, or selling stamps, or casing mail or loading a truck or putting mail through a slot ... then you are out of your mind.... postal employees are spoiled and have been for years... Now it;s time to get nervous.... LAYOFFS ARE COMING !!!!

Without doubt, too many congressmen and too many reporter who will write anythng to get into print. Its time for congress to put up or shut up. Hard to run a business like the postal service when you have to kiss some congressman's rear before you can decide the best way to do business.I say get rid of congress.

There are far too many managers. I am a manager and I've seen it from both sides. But it is not so much local management as it is people that don't even see the mail, touch the mail or have been inside a post office WORKING for decades and have no clue what is going on. Some district jobs are an all day cake party, however, the ones that they have taken away (personnel, for example) had enough work to keep everybody in the department busy all day. As for Anonymous at 1:55....Postmaster is NOT an obsolete job. Who keeps the higher ups off your butt all day long? Walk a mile in their shoes, you may want to change shoes after a few hours. I for one am ALWAYS the first one in...rarely leave in 9...and would love assist with more of the hands on work, but am not allowed!

Hold on Anonymous!! Letter carriers overpaid ! Well, I don't think were underpaid. My health benefits are going way up, my taxes just went up 600 dollars a year. It seems like everybody's solution is for anybody making a decent living to make less.Get rid of the management waste. Add to my route. Bring it on !!

This man needs to take a look at the people with whom he works with. There is a lot of people in Congress that are well above retirement age. Some are so old they can not even make it to meetings but they still get elected. Money talks

Too many 204Bs, some of them just past 90 days probation because they are Manager's daughter,son, nephew etc(level 4 but get paid level 16, 17)...Too many Managers were very lazy as employees before, now they like to eat and seat their butts in offices more. Too many details, too many limited duties, too many union guys, too many labor guys are doing nothing. All corruptions, the boat is sinking SOSSOSSOS....

Anyone with an open mind and isn't a democrat knows that we have 1000's of past retirement people and way too many employees and supervisors for the amount of mail we have. As a maintenance employee, I see that most of the routes are worthless. We fix little during the maintenance window and go about our day signing off stuff that does little to make sure the equipment is fixed. In our office we have a rule that work orders are not generated so stuff doesn't get fixed. How about that for corruption. All in the name of signing off routes so the bonuses get can be doled out to all the little emperors that rule their petty domains. It's a joke. Almost all our supervisors aren't maintenance people and have no business being in their positions. The bulk of them are craft rejects and couldn't do their jobs in the craft anyways.

Get out the scalpel Dr. Issa and start the surgery if you get a chance.

Issa I'm glad your starting to look at management. Their the big problem with the post office. I would like to do nothing either but then again i have to sleep at night. We the unions have taken considerable consessions, its time Issa to look at management now cut the lazy, leeches from the post office. Take atrip around the country and see whats going on behind close doors. Harrasment big time also to fudge their numbers. Did you see they gave out 800 million in perks last year and Potter wants to raise postage. Get the hell out of here Potter and take your lying cronies with you. Sneeks.

I am in complete agreement with many of the posters. We only need one senator [especially the small states, in fact some states have more senators as representatives] per state and only half of the representatives. As a supervisor for 21 years we have too clerks and carriers. Almost each route is under and this I know when I walk with them and return anywhere from 30 minutes to 1 hour thirty minutes. My district has cut supervisors due to less employees and it is the reports [of poor performance of the craft] that keeps us tied to the computer.

If Congress really want to provide quality service to the American people they would either [1] return the Postal Service to the Federal Government or pass legislation to make us a private company and hands off raiding the coffers of the Postal Service. Otherwise, this quasi-crap makes postal employees bastards.

Exactly now, Mr. Congressman; How knowledgable ARE you about HOW the mail is processed? Dang I bet you like our service when you send out your freebie political propaganda!

USPS is supposed to perform as well as any private firm yet it is constantly under the thumb of regulations.

We want 2 cents on an individual letter that neds to go through the cancellation process. (Do you know what is involved? Are you aware we are checking for biohazards to keep you SAFE? ie Antrax detection). Certainly volume mailers will still receive discounts. Their mail is prepared and pre-sorted to help us reduce costs.

Would 2 cents be a huge impact on the average person for such a service? Bet those who complain say nothing for a $1.49 bottle of water!

Yes, I am a postal employee. I'm a technician that works hard to make all of the equipment that provides your politically mail go through!

I am so glad to hear that our government has not changed. Lets just use what we "think" is the postal "norm" as our statistics. I supervise and office of over 60 employees in our office and its only myself and a 204B who works 6 hrs a day to run the floor. 1 to 7 really? I am doing something wrong if thats the norm.

All I have to say is where does congressman Issa get his information from and why is he such a postal hater, is there something going on that we don't know congressman? You seem to have this inside track and a lot of your information is definitely off the track.

I'd like to know where the 1 in 7 figure came from, I've been in offices where I was the only one supervising 50+ employees. Get your facts straight, also supervisors ARE being excessed and have to find a new office just like the other crafts.

Too Many, Too Many, Too Many,Too Many.....that is the statement....Too Many Congressman with lifetime salaries which they allotted for themselves, Too Many with big ideas and no followup....Too Many who aren't held ACCOUNTABLE for mistakes, Too Many not willing to rollup their sleeves and WORK....Too Many who say they can fix it but can't...Too Manager Supervisors and Managers, yes and no....actually TOO MANY INCOMPETENTS not willing to do what they get paid to do. Too Many times forgetting to seeks out the employees that know ALL about the mail and daily operations. TOO MANY yet 204 Wannabees still up, details still growing, limited duty still limited and light duty still light. TOO MANY, TOO MANY, Agree to Disagree. Those that can retire but won't that is your perogative but those that are not retiring what is your excuse. At least the potential retirees have earned theirs.......what about you. You know who you are, if you are not willing to give an earnest days work for a earnest day pay.....take your behinds home....You too Mr. ISSA. You don't have a clue. The Postal Service is still the most economical and secure way to get mail from point A to point B, are we a monopoly yes we are....but unfortunately this is not the MONOPOLY GAME....It is real, and effects everyone. We have to take pride in our product.....Remember WE DELIVER....WE DELIVER. Too Many have forgotten that, the public depends on us and we depend on them to allow us to handle their mail......BUT TOO MANY Don't care ABOUT anything..Especially most Managers and Supervisors. Clean up your house from the front to the back. Review all the Managerial Positions, do they know their job, are they competent are they necessary and productive. Too Many for Too Long. And basically that is the long and the short of it. when all the reduction was being performed on the craft employees ..... EAS increased....they are needed at the stations but they are scared to take a challenge.....Do some work and feel good ABOUT YOURSELVES...AS I SAID THERE are Too Many. Craft has experienced the cutbacks and abolishments.....

The corruption lies at the top in all cities.District Managers,Plant Managers ,Postmasters etc. Screwed over all EAS personel.There isnt enough workforce to do the job with quality as it is. Issa bring your dumb ass down to my station and see how crazy everything is with cutoffs, paperwork, customer time limits etc. A great idea, lets add more people to the unemployment ranks.That will really stimulate spending .Another dumb ass politican.By the way what does your wife do for a living? And your kids?

How about the Maintenance Managers who ORDER their techs to fix something from a solution on the postal internet? They never come close to looking at the machine, fact is they were probably at home doing it. Then when that fix doesn't work say "the new part is bad and fix it again" and it still doesn't work? Come on people, let's let the people who WERE SCHOOLED on this equipment fix it, instead of chasing expensive pipedreams and wonder why we're losing money.

Congress would prefer that the post office only have employees that allow them to continue there criminal activity now that the US Postal Service Inspector General reports answers to them. see Post Office scandal

With regards to postal Maintenance.....it's heading right down the toilet! Management has restructured the whole Maintenance department nationwide, which has now made it a lot easier for mail processing people, who only dreamed of ever getting in Maintenance, to now hold the title of MM, MPE, BEM & ET! I understand that the failure rate at the training facility in OK is rising too! Management did this to make room for present & future excessed mail processing employees & supervision. I work at the Tampa L&DC and it's happening right now.

I have been to the so called training facility. Most of the time is in the bar, gym, sauna other activity, may be the need to study so they can find that one wire a little faster. The quality of some, I will not say all, employees is that the USPS owes them a living. All they do is complain but they don't head for the door. If it is such a tough place to work why don't they seek employement elsewhere? Because no one would put up with the attitude they have, they would last about a week in private industry.There are some very good technicians that do take pride in the job and can troubleshoot a complex machine very well, but until the selection process is taken out of local staff hands you will have the good old boy way of sliding the slackers through.

Is that you Mr. Charles Patterson from the Bay Valley Dist? You know why during route inspections the carriers come back early....no mail, it's very light and the postal inspectors don't want to be out on the street all day. Most of the supervisors are just moved around from city to city. We have no clerks and the 204B'sd are doing clerk work as well as the supervisors and the carriers!

The problems with the postal service is that there are too many supervisors...I work in a station that has 24 carriers and we have 3 supervisors and one station manager...way too many...all they do is read off a number of the dois sheet and tell you what time we should be back. If we were all paid like rural carriers it would save the post office so much money plus eliminate saturday delivery also..By the way the usps will never be privatetize because no stupid idiot would buy a loser of a company as long as the union keeps saving employees jobs that should have been fired.

don't know what facility issa is talking about because remote encoding centers have a 100:1 ratio (employee to supervisor). 'course there's only two of them and they've only been around since 1994 so i guess they haven't had a chance to get all the layers.

if the usps would offer more than a piddling $15,000 they would get more people who are close to retiring to actually do the dead. at this clerk would...give me real $$$$--especially since potter is taking home an easy 5.5M. don't tell me the usps can't afford it.

One supervisor, 37 carriers, short 6 clerks, answering phones, customers at the window, union informal A's, frivolous grievances, endless redundant paperwork, Sox audits...10 hour days with no lunches. Don't know about anyone else, but I could use a hand.

Besides being a thief and an arsonist, Congressman Issa is a liar. He knows as well as anyone that his bizarre claim that all EAS employees are "supervisors" is not true. Issa would not recognize the truth if an asteroid-sized chunk of it landed on his front lawn.

Congress is quick to way what is wrong with other businesses and organizations however, they can not seem to figure out what is wrong with congress. Taxpayers have not contributed to the operation of the USPS since 1985 and until congress mandate for USPS to prefunding future retirements (a mandate that no other business or organization in world has) the USPS was holding its own. Now if congress will concenstrate on fixing congress and let USPS let USPS fix USPS maybe there will be a win win for both. However, I doubt it because it seems as if congress solution to a problem is to make a bigger problem.

1 to 7 ratio--BULL! The average supervisory to employee ratio is 29. About 5yrs ago, I supervised a unit called the Manual Primary wherein I had 125 employees. SO THE DATA IS WRONG, BIASED, AND SKEWED. Alot of people are jealous that Postal Employees are able to make a decent living for themselves/families. ***DON'T GET UPSET WITH US BECAUSE MANY PRIVATE SECTOR EMPLOYERS CHOOSE TO PAY THEIR EMPLOYEES LESS AND TREAT THEM LIKE CRAP***

Why bother the little man. GO CLEAN OUT CONGRESS, THE WHITE HOUSE, SENATE. All of their asses are OVERPAID AND UNDERWORKED. What exactly have they done to help you lately?????? Don't worry I'll wait for you to answer! Can't think of anything can you?

Issa does not know what it takes to run the Post Office an it's mail. The fact is neither does the PMG. They do have too many people in Managment that is wasting time and money. They should retire. There are too many acting supervisors doing the supervisors job. Send them back to craft.

Isa is reffering to management and I would wholeheartedly agree there needs to be a reduction. You could cut, starting at PCES level and above and it would not effect the operations at the Post Office at all. On the same token, Congress could be reduced to 100 members, the Senate. Seing is how the people now elect Senate is now elected instead of appointed what need have the people of a House of Representatives... That is 500 high paid blow hards out of work.